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Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Cromwell Architects Engineers is the oldest architectural firms in Arkansas and one of the oldest in the nation. It was begun in 1885 when Benjamin Bartlett arrived in Little Rock to design the Arkansas School for the Blind. He soon began working on several other projects in the state. In 1886, Charles Thompson joined the firm. Bartlett left the firm in 1890 after moving to Mississippi. From 1891 to 1897, Thompson worked with civil engineer, Fred Rickon. In 1898, Thomas Harding Jr. began working for the firm and the firm name became Thompson and Harding in 1916. Theo Sanders and Frank Ginocchio also worked with Thompson, and Thompson Sanders and Ginocchio were established in 1927. Thompson retired in 1938. Sanders and Ginocchio continued until Sanders withdrew from the firm. He was succeeded by Edwin Boykin Cromwell, who came to Arkansas as an architect with the Resettlement Administration. The two designed the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, which opened in 1950. The firm continued to prosper under Cromwell's leadership, and the name of the firm was changed in 2000 to Cromwell Architects Engineers, Inc.

Some of the more significant projects that the firm completed in Arkansas are buildings at the Arkansas Children's Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, structures at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas, Hillcrest Academy, Searcy High School, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, the L'Oreal USA manufacturing plant, Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Immanuel Baptist Church, Temple B’nai Israel Tennebaum Center, and the Arkansas Arts Center addition.

This collection contains 20 boxes of slides and one photograph of projects worked on and completed by Cromwell Architects Engineers. The projects include buildings designed by the firm throughout Arkansas and various other states.

This collection contains 20 boxes of slides and one photograph of projects worked on and completed by Cromwell Architects Engineers. The projects include buildings designed by the firm throughout Arkansas and various other states.